sixers hoops wrote:The three moves that really crippled the process:
Hinkie drafting Okafor
BC trading the three pick and a future first to move up for Fultz
Elton trading Shameet, 2 firsts and a second for Tobias, and then re-signing him to the max contract. That is a lot of resources and salary cap space to lock in Tobias Harris for max years.
I think the most crippling move was the Fultz trade. If you assume we take Tatum at three, we may have been to the finals by now.
The most crippling move was not committing to Jimmy Butler. We let a fringe top 10 player walk in favor of a guy who's top 50ish. You don't get chances at top 10 players often and the only other chance we had at one was a Harden trade, which seemed unlikely and might have ended with Harden walking for Brooklyn like Kawhi did with Toronto.
Butler was basically the one that got away.
On a lesser note, I wanted us to go for Khris Middleton after he got injured. His production pre-injury far exceeded his mainstream recognition. There was a window before he signed his extension where we had the assets to go for a buy low. He'd have been an elite fit as the half court creator we always needed.
Instead we went with Butler and Harris and ultimately ended up with Harris. Harris is a good player, a top 50ish player, but he's not a great fit with Embiid and he's not the third star you envision getting when you have a boatload of tradeable assets and two blossoming stars.